Many things!

Hola from Mexico!

“Where to start?” is always the question when I sit down to try to give an idea of all that God is doing in our lives.  I’ll start out with what’s been happening this year and get to some important prayer requests.  Hope you have a couple minutes to enjoy it all!

Along with the joys of serving the Arbol de Vida church here, 2012 started out with a surprise trip to Calgary (didn’t even get to Didsbury) to visit my (Greg’s) Dad in the hospital who knocked on death’s door to encourage and be encouraged with family as he recuperated.  The Lord saw fit for him to recover and learn how to not die with asthma (the specialists said that “no one needs to die from asthma these days” with the proper medication and education.  A relief for him and I as we both suffer from asthma.  Nice to be able cross that option off of the list of probable causes of death…).  What a special time to spend 3 days sharing of God’s goodness in our lives!  I then got to spend 3 days on the road back to Mexico with Lane Elliott (fellow missionaries on home assignment) who, God knew, needed a travelling partner for his trip back to Hermosillo to minister for a couple weeks.  What a week!

A couple of other highlights from the last few months include an opportunity to attend a pastor’s conference in Minneapolis with leaders from Arbol de Vida, an amazing course on the Pentateuch with Dr. Konkel, president of Providence Theological Seminary in Manitoba from Feb 5-12 with many youth and adults from our church and others in the city eating up the feast of Biblical teaching that was served in the 28 hour course.  If there is anyway you could arrange the time to listen to the course on your computer you can listen to it in English (with Spanish translation) at www.arboldevida.info/escucha.html  Dr. Konkel proposed that you cannot really understand who Jesus is and what He came to do without understanding the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Listen to the course and you’ll know why.

12 brothers and sisters from the Winnipeg Evangelical Free Church were here just last week to minsiter through construction on a camp/retreat centre  that we hope will be a place of blessing for the churches of Sonora!  Their ministry took other forms as they touched the lives of our church, our kids from the SMILES ministry (burn survivors), orphans, the Triquis ( a local tribe that we are making disciples in), laboreres in our grape vineyards worker ministry among others.  They were a huge blessing and we hope to see them back next year!

Just wanted to mention the blessing of a couple other people that have made 2012 wonderful.  My cousin Delbert and his wife Sylvia were here in January with hearts to serve and love.  We had a great time with them getting a lot of needed jobs finished and enjoying the fellowhip at the same time!  We also had Kent and LeAnne Lien and their 3 wonderful kids from Cochrane, AB. here for a week in February which was also a major blessing as they served as a family making friendships and loving as Jesus did!  We did not them before and totally enjoyed getting to know them and their hearts for the Lord.  Had some great therapeutic laughs too!

Then 2 weeks ago my cousin Raymond Bartsch from Okotoks, AB. came for his first visit to Mexico.  We had a awesome time sharing our lives and ministry with him and even getting a day of bass fishing in (the first bass we fisherman had ever caught and Ray ended up with a 7.5 pounder – a beauty!).  We went fishing for men too as we shared the Gospel one night with the workers at a local grape vineyard.

Jack and Lucy Vogt (from Dawson City, Yukon) headed home at the end of February after their 3rd winter of serving in teaching, discipleship, women’s minsitry, construction, hosting here in Hermosillo.  We wish they could stay year round!  Reg and Linda Toth are here serving faithfully again despite health concerns almost cancelling their time this year.  We are very thankful for God grace in letting them come back again.  Don’t know what we’d do without them!

Prayer Requests!

1. Miguel.  We have a wonderful young man living with us (since October) that is waiting for a kidney transplant.  He has been on hemodialysis for the past 3 years and due to unfair (in our opinion – wanting to be careful not to stereotype the whole system) circumstances in the state hospital system (the only one that will give him care without an insurance plan) he is still  far from getting a transplant.  Recently, we have woke up to the reality that if he stays in the current treatment he will probably die before getting a kidney.  Pray with us for Miguel in the following areas. 1. That we could get him a job that would get him and insurance plan to move him to beign attended to in a better hospital. 2. That God would protect his health as he waits.  Miguel has witnessed various friends die beside him during dialysis due to preventable causes.  3. Please pray for his encouragement as many times he has come home really down from seeing a friend die or being discriminated against or beat up because of his tatoos or his accent.  Miguel was born in Mexico but grew up in Phoenix in the middle of gangs, etc.  Jesus saved him 2 years ago and we just want to see him live to share his testimony to a hurting world. Thank you!

2. Please pray for Shelli as she is going through some health issues.  Recently she was diagnosed with epileptic absense siezures (controlled with medication) and a bone growth issue in her neck that will likely require surgery in June after she goes with a team to Cuba to teach children’s ministry leaders in May.  Please pray for her as she listens to the Lord direct her (and we as a family) through the changes that may need to occur in life and ministry.  Shelli has worked hard over the last years to train leaders and relieve the workload, so we trust that the Lord will honour her labors and that she will be able to get the rest she needs.

3. Please pray for our church as we send two missions teams out this summer.  A team of 9 youth and adults from Arbol de Vida is going, Lord-willing and providing, to northern India to work with various evangelism and compassion ministries.  Please pray for our church as we work together to raise funds!  The other team will be heading to northern Saskatchewan to Buffalo Narrows to serve in outreach projects (children, youth) with Canadian First Nations people for a week and then visiting and ministering in a number of churches in central Alberta and the Evangelical Free Church of Canada annual conference during the second week.  Please pray with us as we train the teams and as we trust in God for provision, visas (Mexican need visas to enter Canada as tourists) and wisdom as leaders.

4. Please pray for our church as we grow!  We are excited to see people standing in the back each Sunday, but we are faced with the need of moving ahead on the second phase of construction at Arbol de Vida.  The architect (one of our former youth) and engineer (a member of our church that is donating his time and signature) are working on the plans for the sanctuary with room for 300+ so that we can start construction this fall.  We need prayer for grace in getting the construction permits (first hurdle), raising funds (already started – one church member here already bought 2000 cinder blocks for the walls) and seeing church teams get involved.  More to come on this!

5. Please pray for our family.  With all the forementioned plans, Shelli and I are needing some serious direction on a personal family level.  We have looked for a house to buy here over the last few years and are waiting on the Lord for the right house.  The thing we don’t want to happen is for this to be a distraction.  Please pray for the right house to come up or that we’ll have peace with our current situation.  We were (are?) also planning to come to Canada for a home assignment this fall but with a number of reasons not to go ahead with it this fall we are trying to figure out what God would want.  We need wisdom and guidance plain and simple.

Thank you for listening!  We really appreciate your prayers knowing that God is listening and ready to attend to the needs of His children.

We praise the Lord for His goodness and look forward to being in touch soon to let you know about new believers being baptized, Shelli’s Cuba trip and more!

Joyfully serving Jesus and the ones He came to save,

Greg, Shelli, Talson, Annelise and Caleb Neufeld